Apparatus and machinery for automatically packing either individual, or a plurality of, articles in the nature of bottles, or other containers, in one or more cases, or cartons, have long been known to the art, and such machines incorporate a wide variety of configurations for operating according to a fairly limited number of procedures.
For example, continuous motion packers adapted to load two laterally disposed files, or columns, of relatively large bottles into upwardly open cases, or cartons, are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,901,501 and 5,020,306--both of which are assigned to Standard-Knapp, Inc.--but neither of those patents disclose or suggest how one might load more than two columns of side-by-side containers having upwardly facing pockets. When a plurality of containers are to be received in cartons having a plurality of pockets one approach has been to employ what is commonly known as a "drop packer." That is, the containers, or bottles, are dropped through a grid into the cases that are positioned beneath the bottles.
The drop packer apparatus has heretofore had two requirements that not only slow the packing procedure but also require complicated machinery to accomplish its objective. Drop packers typically require: (1) that the bottles must be dropped; and, (2) that absolute synchronization between the location of the bottles and the location of the receiving cartons must be achieved. The drop distance is typically minimized by employing elevators that either raise the receiving carton--as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,241,805--or lower the bottle to a minimal drop distance--as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,212,930. Both of the aforesaid prior art patents issued to Standard-Knapp, Inc.
Even aside from the drop packers, the prior art has heretofore focused on the means by which to effect synchronization of the bottles relative to the receiving carton, and such focus has involved relatively complex interactions between the containers, or bottles, and the cartons within which the containers are to be received. Perhaps the most simplified arrangement is that shown in the previously identified U.S. Pat. No. 5,241,805 wherein a mechanism is incorporated to lift at least one end of the receiving carton so as to minimize the drop distance and at the same time effect control over the longitudinal movement of the carton in order to achieve synchronization between the longitudinal location of the carton relative to the bottles.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,197,261--issued to Hartness International, Inc.--has secured synchronization by driving the cartons at a predetermined speed and allowing the containers to slide, by gravity, down a slide where the shoulders of the containers are engaged by elongate members that drive the containers into the cases. The rate at which the cases are loaded is determined by the preselected speed at which the cases are delivered to the loading zone. The successive containers are precluded from spilling out of the loading mechanism simply by the presence of the containers previously deposited in the case positioned at the loading zone which serve to block the successive containers from falling off the slide. In the event a case is not timely delivered to the loading station the containers will fall onto the loading zone.